An existential approach to personality. Existential approach in psychotherapy

02.12.2020

Existential psychotherapy is a direction of psychotherapy, which consists in helping people to understand the concepts of death, responsibility, isolation using certain techniques. There are a large number of techniques that the psychotherapist selects individually, depending on the problem and characteristics of the person. Psychologists who have a basic higher education and have undergone professional retraining in this area are allowed to work within the framework of existential therapy.

Existential psychotherapy: direction description

Existential psychotherapy ("existentia" - emergence, appearance, existence) - psychotherapeutic approaches in which the emphasis is placed on the free development of the personality, awareness of a person's responsibility for the formation of the inner world and the choice of a life path. The founder of this method is the Danish philosopher Seren Kierkegaard. He believed that the solution to any problem was an artificial difficulty created, which should cover real troubles in importance. Existential psychotherapy emerged in Europe in the second half of the 20th century due to the dissatisfaction of psychologists with deterministic views of man and the development of existential philosophy.

The foundation of existential psychotherapy consists of 4 basic concepts that underlie human thinking, aimed at realizing a negative attitude towards the environment:

death;
freedom;
insulation;
meaninglessness.

Existential psychotherapy is based on the belief that a person's inner conflict is formed on the basis of his own attitude to the problem that has arisen, that is, what can be a huge disaster for one person, is perceived by others as an insignificant difficulty and passes by him unnoticed. The main feature of this psychotherapeutic method lies in the focus on the life of the individual, and not on the personality, therefore, many psychotherapists of this direction avoid using this term. The main goal of existential psychotherapy is to help you understand your life, better understand your capabilities and their boundaries. The restructuring of the patient's personality is not provided. That is why this direction is associated with philosophy.

Its development was influenced by the following philosophers:

M. Heidegger;
M. Buber;
K. Jaspers;
P. Tillich;
J.-P. Sartre;
V. Rozanov;
S. Frank;
N. Berdyaev

Features of this direction

With the development of existential psychotherapy, D. Bujenthal put forward the main postulates of this direction (1963):

1. Man as an integral being exceeds the sum of his constituents, ie, man cannot be explained as a result of a scientific study of his partial functions.
2. Human being unfolds in the context of human relations, that is, it cannot be explained by its partial functions, which do not take into account interpersonal experience.
3. Man is conscious of himself.
4. Man has a choice.
5. Man is intentional, that is, he is turned into the future.

Another feature of existential therapy is the desire to understand a person through his internal universal characteristics. There are 7 such factors:

freedom, its limitations and responsibility for it;
human limb or death;
existential anxiety;
existential guilt;
life in time;
meaning and meaninglessness.

Representatives

One of the representatives of this psychotherapeutic trend is Viktor Frankl (1905-1997). His teaching is called "logotherapy" - a variant of existential analysis, which means a person's striving for meaning. There is a specific and non-specific area of \u200b\u200bapplication of this method. The first includes neuroses, and the second includes various other diseases.

According to V. Frankl, a person in any situation strives for meaning. There are three basic concepts in this approach:

free will (people retain the basic freedom to make decisions);
the will to meaning (a person does not just have freedom, but he is free in order to achieve certain goals);
the meaning of life (meaning is an objective reality).

Frankl's teachings emphasize such a concept as values, which are the result of generalizations of typical situations in the history of society. He identifies three groups of values: creativity, experiences and relationships. The values \u200b\u200bof creativity are realized through labor. Love is one of the values \u200b\u200bof experience.

The main problem with logotherapy is the problem of responsibility. Having found a meaning, a person is responsible for its implementation. The individual is required to make a decision: whether to implement this meaning in a given situation or not.

American psychologist R. May formulated the reasons for the development and characteristics of this direction. This scientist denied that existential psychotherapy is an independent branch of psychotherapy. J. Bujenthal sought to combine the principles of humanistic and existential psychotherapy and highlighted the main provisions of this direction:

1. Behind any human problems lie deeper, unconscious existential problems of freedom of choice and responsibility.
2. This approach is to recognize the human in each individual and respect his uniqueness.
3. The leading role is assigned to work with what is relevant at the present time.

Working in an existential direction

Anyone can turn to existential therapy. It is important that the patient is actively involved in the process of exploring his life, be open and honest. This direction helps those in crisis situations when they do not see the meaning of existence, complain of apathy and depression. Such psychotherapy is indicated for people who have experienced changes in their lifestyle, the loss of loved ones. It helps those who suffer from acute or chronic physical illnesses, mental illnesses, improving understanding and acceptance of changes due to illness.

The psychotherapist, working in this direction, studies behavior, speech, dreams and biography. Existential psychotherapy is carried out individually and in a group of 9-12 participants.

In most cases, work is carried out in a group, as it has a number of advantages over the individual form. Patients and therapist can get more information about a person through interpersonal communication, see inappropriate actions and correct them. In existential psychotherapy, group dynamics is important, which is aimed at identifying how the behavior of each member of the group is viewed by other people, makes them feel, creates an opinion about the person and affects their self-image. Training in this direction is carried out on the basis of a basic psychological education.

Specialists do not impose their own thoughts on patients. In the works of a psychotherapist like Irwin Yalom, the importance of implicit "infusions" is mentioned. We are talking about those moments in the session when the consultant shows not only professional, but also human participation in the patient's problems. Thus, the psychotherapy session turns into a friendly meeting.

To establish and maintain good relations with a client, a specialist needs full involvement in a problem situation, wisdom and indifference, the ability to maximally engage in the psychotherapeutic process. There is a question about the psychotherapist's self-disclosure. A specialist can do this in two ways.

First, tell your interlocutors about your own attempts to reconcile with problems and preserve the best human qualities. Irwin Yalom says that he made a mistake by rarely resorting to self-disclosure. As the author notes in his Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy (2000), every time he shared his experiences with patients, the latter benefited from them.

Second, you don't have to focus on the content of the session. Psychotherapists can simply use this time to apply thoughts and feelings about what is happening now to improve the professional-patient relationship. Will, acceptance of responsibility, attitude towards the therapist, and involvement in life are key points.

Methods and techniques

There are a large number of techniques for applying the concepts of this direction. They are selected by a specialist on the basis of their effectiveness, client's problems and individual characteristics. If some problems are not solved by the psychotherapist himself, then he is incompetent in solving them and it is necessary to refer the patient to another.

Techniques for dealing with existential concerns are distinguished: death, responsibility and freedom, isolation and meaninglessness. Other techniques are sometimes recommended. Their use can increase the effectiveness of psychotherapy.

Death

The technique of “tolerating endure” is to let patients know that discussing the problems associated with death is highly valued in counseling. This can be done through taking an interest in and encouraging self-disclosure in this area.

The therapist does not need to maintain the denial of death in clients. It is imperative that these questions remain “in the public eye”.

The technique of working with defense mechanisms is that the therapist tries to help patients admit that they will not live forever. These psychologists need persistence and timing to help clients deal with and transform their childish and naive views of death.

Dream work is done by telling patients about their dreams. In dreams (especially in nightmares), various themes can appear unconsciously in an unsuppressed form, and the motive of death is often present in them. In this way, the analysis and discussion of dreams is carried out.

The technique of using assistive devices is that the patient is asked to write his own obituary or fill out a questionnaire with questions on the topic of death. The counselor may offer to fantasize about their death, imagining where, how and when they will meet it and how their funeral will take place. The technique of decreasing the sensitivity (sensitivity) to death is close to the previous one, according to which the therapist helps to cope with the horror of death by repeatedly forcing this fear to be experienced.

Responsibility and freedom

The technique of defining the types of protection and methods of evading responsibility is that the therapist assists the client in understanding the functions of his behavior in the form of evading responsibility for the choice. Sometimes the counselor, together with the patient, analyzes the responsibility for his own unhappiness and puts him face to face with it. This method consists in the fact that when a person complains about a negative situation that happened in his life, the therapist asks how he created it, and also focuses on the ways in which the interlocutor uses the language of avoidance of responsibility (i.e., often says "I can't" instead of "I don't want to").

The next technique focuses on the relationship between the therapist and the patient (identification of avoidance of responsibility). It lies in the fact that specialists put clients face to face with their attempts to transfer responsibility for what happens in the framework of psychotherapy and outside of it to the counselor. That is, many patients who seek help from a psychologist expect that the therapist will do all the necessary work for them, sometimes treating him as a friend. By influencing the counselor's feelings in this way, the client shifts responsibility to the counselor.

The technique of confronting the limitations of reality is that the therapist helps to determine the areas of life that the patient can influence, despite the difficulties. The specialist changes the mindset to those restrictions that cannot be changed. It enables the interlocutor to accept the existing injustice.

Isolation and meaninglessness

With the technique of working with isolation, the psychologist helps to understand that each person is born, develops and dies alone. Awareness of this concept affects the change in the quality of life and relationships in society. The psychotherapist invites the interlocutor to isolate himself from the outside world for a while and be isolated. As a result, clients become aware of their loneliness and their hidden possibilities.

The problem redefinition technique is used when patients complain that life has no meaning. What they really mean is that life has meaning, but they cannot find it. The task of the therapist in this case is to explain: there is no objective meaning in life, but a person is responsible for creating it. The technique for defining defenses against anxiety and meaninglessness is that the specialist helps to become more aware of them. It is with these concepts that patients often take their life lightly and create problems that have to be avoided.

Existential therapy pursues the following goals:

become honest with yourself,
expand your vision of personal prospects and the world around you in general,
to clarify what gives meaning to present and future life.

Key concepts therapies are: self-awareness, self-determination and responsibility, loneliness and relationship with others, the search for authenticity and meaning, existential anxiety, death and nothingness.

The main tasks existential groups are:

expanding the boundaries of consciousness and self-understanding;
taking responsibility for your life;
developing the ability to love others and allow yourself to be loved;
developing the ability to enjoy life without feeling guilty;
developing the ability to freely choose and take risks, accepting the inevitability of experiencing anxiety and guilt;
development of a sense of being;
increasing the meaning of life "
development of the ability to navigate in the real time of life (Kochyunas, 2000).

Group dynamics seeks to identify how the behavior of each member of the group is viewed by others, causes others to experience certain feelings, creates an opinion of others, and influences their opinion of themselves. The patient can choose:

expand your consciousness or limit your vision of yourself;
create and seek the meaning of your life or lead an empty and meaningless existence;
to determine the course of your life yourself or to allow other people or circumstances to determine it for him;
go in search of your identity or let it dissolve in opportunism;
to use your potential or not to act;
establish meaningful relationships with others, or isolate;
take a certain risk and experience the anxiety that accompanies change, or choose the safety of addiction;
to accept the inevitability of their death or to isolate themselves from this knowledge, because it generates anxiety (Corey, 2003).

When establishing indications for therapy, the following restrictions should be considered:

It is not suitable for patients who are not interested in exploring the deeper foundations of their existence.
It is not suitable for those patients who are looking for a specific way to get rid of their symptoms or solve their problems and do not see the value of the existential approach.
An existential therapist offers the patient support to meet the true foundations of his life. He cannot help someone who sees in him a leader or strictly a parent.
An existential therapist should be a mature person, striving for the completeness of life experiences, underwent intensive supervision and training. A practitioner with a vague understanding of this approach deceives himself and his patients and can be dangerous for them (Corey, 2003).

The therapist should help patients discover and exercise freedom of choice and accept responsibility for the choices they make. Its main role is to be fully present and accessible for group members, as well as to understand their subjective being in the world. He is required to create personal relationships, reveal himself and carefully confront the group.

The group leader should:

be a real person in the group, and not try to play the role of a therapist;
remember the principle here and now ”, asking himself and the participant the question:“ What is happening now? What do we feel? What are we thinking about? What are we doing with this? ”;
avoid using psychological terms;
notice and draw the attention of the participants to the contradictory, paradoxical positions they occupy in the life of the group;
share your doubts with participants. uncertainty, anxiety, mood changes;
find a place for humor in difficult situations without slipping to the surface level.

R. Kochyunas (2002) highlights the following functions of the leader of the existential group:

Structuring the life of the group - fixing the beginning and end of the lesson, supporting productive and blocking unproductive actions of the participants, protecting them from destructive mutual attacks.
Reflection of group processes - focusing the participants' attention on what is happening in the group, on the contradictions between words and actions, on the “holes” in the life of the group, etc.
The direction of group work is to help in the transition from superficial statements to deep feelings, from impersonal, abstract questions to discussing personal problems, from talking to action.
Modeling - The therapist should be an example of true group life.
Linking parts of life in a group in order to bring emerging situations to completion.

The therapist can structure the group based on one of the existential themes, such as anxiety or guilt, freedom or responsibility. At the same time, he shares with the group the feelings that arise here and now. The following questions may be helpful:
- Do you like how your life is flowing?
- If not, what do you do about it?
- What aspects of your life satisfy you the most?
- What prevents you from doing what you want?

Responsibility formation takes place in a group form and includes the adoption of the following beliefs.

The realization that life is sometimes arranged dishonestly and unfairly.
The realization that some part of life's suffering and death cannot ultimately be avoided.
The realization that no matter how close I am with other people, I still have to cope with life alone. Meeting the basic questions of my life and death, thanks to which I can now live my life more honestly and become less involved in trivialities.
Awareness that I am ultimately responsible for how I live my life, no matter how much support and guidance I receive from others (Yalom 2000).

The effectiveness of therapy is assessed primarily by specific facts from the life of patients; the assessment of positive changes by their immediate environment is taken into account. Therapeutic changes in the group occur in the following areas:

preference begins to be given to the anxiety of self-choice, rather than a sense of security (often in a state of dependence on others);
there is a desire to define oneself, and not to be a reflection of other people's expectations;
there is an understanding that, although not everything can be changed in life, there is always an opportunity to change your attitude to the unchanging;
one accepts one's own limitations without suffering a sense of one's own worth, which is expressed in the formula: in order to be valuable, one does not have to be perfect;
comes a new awareness of the "obstacles" to life in the present: being caught up in the past, over-planning for the future, the desire to do a lot at the same time.

A.E. Alekseychik (1990, 2008) developed a method of intensive therapeutic life, combining existential orientation with the techniques of gestalt therapy and psychodrama. This technique is characterized by directiveness, careful preliminary study of the scenario of classes, intensification and dramatization of the inclusion of participants in the work of the group. Basic principles of techniquesand:

Realism - the implementation of the rules of "accepting fate" and "paying for everything."
Syntheticity is a level-by-level elaboration of the participants' peak experiences based on various representational systems using a wide arsenal of techniques.
Intensification of experiences - identification of the experiences being worked out and "burnout".
Reliance on intact mental processes and compensatory mechanisms.
Dramatization - techniques of "hovering over an abyss", repeated switching of polar experiences of the participants, dramatic detailing and the formation of associative connections of the created psychotherapeutic situation with real problems and relationships of the participants.
The truth of information, achieved by the methods of "materialization" and reduced "measurement" of experiences.
Clear definition of therapeutic goals: dynamic, open self-assessment in points of therapeutic effect.

Group therapy for patients with suicidal tendencies is carried out in crisis groups. The group crisis therapy (GCT) developed by us (Starshenbaum, 2005) is a highly specific form of crisis therapy that satisfies the increased need of a crisis individual for psychological support and practical help from others. Unlike other forms of group therapy, GCT is aimed at resolving an actual situation that is vital for the patient, which determines the short-term, intensity and problem orientation of GCT. The focus of the crisis group is, as a rule, highly significant relationships for patients in their real life, and not the interactions that occur between members of the group "here and now." Group crisis therapy has several advantages over individual crisis therapy. The group enables the patient to overcome the dependent expectations centered on the therapist. Attempts to increase self-acceptance and self-esteem of a crisis individual with the help of individual conversations, as a rule, turn out to be ineffective, since the therapist's arguments are often perceived as conditioned by the fulfillment of his professional duty. The statements of "comrades in misfortune", emotionally colored and reinforced by relationships of mutual assistance, turn out to be more effective. The group reflects the negative features of communication, unconscious by the patient, which are not always manifested by him in individual communication with the psychotherapist, provides confrontation with unacceptable behavior. Finally, the group provides the patient with the opportunity to help other participants, while experiencing feelings of competence and need, which are extremely useful in overcoming the crisis.

IN as indications for conducting GKT are the following:

the presence of suicidal tendencies or a high probability of their resumption when the crisis situation worsens;
the expressed need for psychological support and practical help, the establishment of highly significant relationships to replace the lost ones, the need to create a therapeutic and life optimistic perspective, develop and test new ways of adaptation;
willingness to discuss their problems in a group, to consider and accept the views of group members with the aim of therapeutic restructuring necessary to resolve the crisis and prevent its recurrence in the future.

The final indications for GCT are established on the basis of observing the patient's behavior in the first group lesson and familiarity with his subjective experiences associated with his participation in the group. Insufficient consideration of this provision can lead to a negative effect of group tension on the patient's condition and an increase in suicidal feelings. Moreover, in a crisis group, the suicidal behavior of one of the participants can relatively easily actualize similar tendencies in the rest of the group. In this regard, during the preliminary conversation with the patient, it is stipulated that his first participation in the group sessions is a trial one, and the discussion of the methods of his further treatment will take place after this session.

Some patients consider their participation in the group only as an opportunity to temporarily escape from the traumatic situation, to “recuperate”, in order to then continue trying in the same ways that have already shown their ineffectiveness.

These unrealistic treatment attitudes are often the topic of group discussion when new members are added to the group. In order to develop an optimistic therapeutic perspective, the patient is introduced to a review book of former group members, in which they describe the course of resolving their crisis situation with the help of the therapy group. After the final establishment of the indications for GCT, a conversation is held with the patient, during which the possibilities of using the help of the crisis group are discussed.

Group members... The size of the crisis group is limited to 10 members. The group usually includes two patients with a high suicidal risk, since mutual identification promotes public self-disclosure and discussion of their suicidal experiences. However, more than two of these patients create a difficult problem for the group, requiring too much time and attention to the detriment of the rest of the group, creating a painful pessimistic atmosphere, fraught with actualization of suicidal experiences in other patients.

The low group activity of crisis patients is overcome by the fact that a psychotherapist, a patient with psychopathy of an affective or hysterical type, with a mildly expressed situational decompensation, is included in the group as a sublider - a conductor of emotional influence. It is taken into account that two such patients can enter into rivalry with each other, suppressing the activity of the others and disorganizing the work of the group.

The composition of the group is heterogeneous in age and gender, which removes the idea of \u200b\u200bthe age and gender uniqueness of their own crisis problems, expands the possibility of interaction. The older ones take care of the younger ones, men and women reinforce the mutual need to recognize their sexual attractiveness, while maladaptive gender-role attitudes are identified and corrected. The urgency of crisis problems, their coverage allow us to intensify psychotherapeutic influences as much as possible. Group lessons are held up to five times a week and last 1.5-2 hours. Taking into account the fact that the usual time for a patient to resolve a crisis is 4-6 weeks, the course of GCT is on average one month. For such a period, it becomes possible to unite the group on the basis of common crisis problems.

The role of group cohesion in a crisis group differs from its role in an interpersonal group, where it is used for empathy training and arises in the course of this training. In a crisis group, the cohesion of the participants is developed in the course of mutual support and is used to resolve their crisis situations.

In this regard, communication between group members outside the classroom is encouraged, in contrast to the analytical group, where it is prohibited.

The group is open-ended, that is, one or two patients (“limb”) drop out of it weekly due to the end of the therapy period and, accordingly, it is replenished with new participants (“openness”). The openness of the group, creating certain difficulties for its cohesion, allows at the same time to solve a number of important therapeutic problems. Thus, persons who are at the later stages of overcoming the crisis, with their successful example, encourage newcomers to treatment, contribute to the creation of an optimistic healing perspective in them. In addition, in an open crisis group, it is easier to carry out cognitive restructuring through mutual enrichment of life experience, exchange of various ways of adaptation. In the open-end group, more experienced patients teach newcomers to overcome the crisis.

GKT is carried out in stages in relation to each member of the group: crisis support, crisis intervention, training of adaptation skills. At the same time, in the course of one lesson, depending on the condition of the patients, methods are usually used that correspond to different stages of crisis therapy. At the stage of crisis support, an important role is played by the patient's emotional inclusion in the group, which provides him with empathic support from the group members, helps eliminate his feelings of hopelessness and despair, as well as the idea of \u200b\u200bthe uniqueness and intolerance of his own suffering. For lonely helpless people experiencing an extremely high need for psychological support and practical help in a crisis state, including outside of group classes, a crisis group becomes the last chance for survival.

In the first sessions, the disclosure and sympathetic sharing of the patient's suicidal experiences by members of the group who have or have recently had similar experiences is carried out. As a result, the response of these experiences is greatly facilitated, which leads to a decrease in affective tension. In order to mobilize personal protection, anti-suicidal factors are actualized. Among the group members, there are often patients in whom the onset of a crisis is largely due to excessive sensitivity and vulnerability, combined with excessive demands on themselves. In such cases, the topic of discussion becomes a suicidogenic attitude to blame oneself for all the troubles, as well as the experience of one's own guilt and failure. In these patients, the key to overcoming the crisis is to achieve "self-acceptance", which is facilitated by using the mutual support of group members.

During the first stage of GKT, the patient receives much-needed psychological support and practical help from other group members who fill the empty world of a crisis individual. With their achievements in therapy, they clearly show him the possibility of overcoming the crisis. As a result, the localization and formulation of the crisis problem is facilitated, after which the transition to the second stage of the GKT begins.

Crisis Intervention Stage is devoted to finding the best way to resolve the crisis. It should be noted that due to the exchange of life experience between the members of the group, the repertoire of adaptation skills of patients with GCT is enriched more significantly than with individual interaction. In a group, the patient will better accept the advice of treatment partners and, supported by them, will be more bold to try new ways of adapting. In the process of problematic discussions, the patient's recognition of a maladaptive attitude is achieved, which prevents him from using the necessary methods of resolving a crisis situation. One of the most frequent topics discussed in the crisis group is the attitude to preserve "at all costs" family or love relationships that have become traumatic or even suicidogenic. Patients' achievement of this life goal is hindered by the unrealistic ideals of a life partner formed in their childhood - for example, as caring and at the same time obedient.

Adaptation skills training stage begins after the patient has made a definite decision to change his position in the conflict and needs to expand his adaptive capabilities. At this stage, new ways of solving the problem are tested and consolidated and a number of non-adaptive personality traits are being corrected, such as the need for extremely close emotional relationships, the dominance of love relationships in the value system, the insufficient role of the professional sphere, the low ability to compensate in situations of frustration, etc. ...

Since the testing of new methods of adaptation is carried out at the final stage of GKT, when the suicidal risk is minimized, a decrease in self-esteem during possible failures does not lead to an increase in the feeling of personal failure, but only contributes to a realistic assessment of one's own capabilities and strengthens therapeutic motivation for further training in adaptation skills. The main methods of therapy at this stage are communication training using problematic discussions, role training, psychodrama and autogenic training. Playing the role of a significant other helps the patient to better understand the motives of the partner's behavior and, based on this, build relationships with him. Training in the best performance of one's own role helps to change the patient's communication style to a more adaptive one. In the process of role-based training, skills of sex-role behavior are also developed, the idea of \u200b\u200bone's own sexual attractiveness is reinforced.

Problem orientation of the GKT requires focusing the lesson on a crisis situation, therefore the position of the psychotherapist is to a certain extent directive. A psychotherapist in a crisis group often resorts to direct questions, suggests topics for discussion and ways to solve problems, and when the suicidal tendencies of a group member are actualized, he directly controls his behavior.

It should be noted that, while creating a number of valuable opportunities for stopping the crisis and preventing suicidal tendencies in the future, GKT at the same time significantly complicates the work of the psychotherapist. The expressed need of crisis patients for psychological support, summed up when they are combined into a group, can lead to emotional overload of the psychotherapist. In addition, he needs to simultaneously focus the individual crisis situations of the group members in the conditions of their frequent change, take into account the possibility of imperceptible addition to the patient's own problems of crisis problems of other group members, prevent the spread of depressive and autoaggressive tendencies in the group. In order to reduce the listed difficulties, joint management of a crisis group with a co-therapist is practiced, the functions of which are as follows. At the first stage of the GKT, the co-therapist, together with the leading psychotherapist, participates in creating an atmosphere of unconditional acceptance of the personality and experiences of patients. At the second stage, the GKT co-therapist ensures that the group members are included in the discussion, control over their condition and provide the necessary psychological assistance in case of deterioration. At the third stage of the GKT, the co-therapist, in the process of role-playing games, acts as an assistant to the director and commentator, plays the roles of the patient or persons from his immediate environment, and also conducts autogenic training sessions aimed at improving emotional self-control.

(unique and inimitable human life) in philosophical and cultural use. He also drew attention to the turning points in human life, which open up the possibility of living further in a completely different way than until now.

Currently, a number of very different psychotherapeutic approaches are designated by the same term existential therapy (existential analysis). Among the main ones are:

Existential Analysis of Ludwig Binswanger.
Dasein analysis of Medard Boss.
Existential Analysis (Logotherapy) by Viktor Frankl.
Alfried Langle's Existential Analysis.

Most of them pay attention to the same basic elements of existence: love, death, loneliness, freedom, responsibility, faith, etc. For existentialists, it is fundamentally unacceptable to use any typologies, universal interpretations: to comprehend something in relation to each specific person is possible only in the context of his specific life.

Existential therapy helps to cope with many seemingly dead-end situations in life:

depression;
fears;
loneliness;
addictions, workaholism;
obsessive thoughts and actions;
emptiness and suicidal behavior;
grief, the experience of loss and the finitude of existence;
crises and failures;
indecision and loss of life guidelines;
loss of a sense of fullness of life, etc.

Therapeutic factors in existential approaches are: the client's understanding of the unique essence of his life situation, the choice of attitude to his present, past and future, the development of the ability to act, taking responsibility for the consequences of his actions. The existential therapist makes sure that his patient is as open as possible to meet the opportunities that arise during his life, is able to make choices and actualize them. The goal of therapy is the most complete, rich, meaningful existence.

A person can be who he chose to be. His existence is always given as an opportunity to go beyond himself in the form of a decisive rush forward, through his dreams, through his aspirations, through his desires and goals, through his decisions and actions. A throw that always involves risk and uncertainty. Existence is always immediate and unique, as opposed to the universal world of empty, frozen abstractions.

Links

Journal "Existential Tradition: Philosophy, Psychology"

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

See what "Existential therapy" is in other dictionaries:

Existential therapy - (existential therapy) therapy that encourages people to take responsibility for their lives and fill it with more meaning and values \u200b\u200b... General Psychology: Glossary

EXISTENTIAL THERAPY - A form of psychotherapy based on the philosophical doctrine of existentialism. In practice, the existentialist approach is highly subjective and focuses on the immediate situation (see being in the world and Dasein). She is different from most ... ...

- (English existential therapy) grew out of the ideas of existential philosophy and psychology, which are focused not on the study of the manifestations of the human psyche, but on his very life in an inextricable connection with the world and other people (here being, being in the world ... Wikipedia

Existential therapy - - a variant of psychotherapy, not aimed at eliminating any specific symptoms of the disorder, but having as its primary goal the prevention of their occurrence by means of awareness of one's "way of being in the world." The main thing in such therapy ... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary of Psychology and Pedagogy

- (German Gestalttherapie) direction of psychotherapy, the main ideas and methods of which were developed by F. Perls, Laura Perls, Paul Goodman. A great contribution to the development of the methodology and theory of gestalt therapy was also made by Isedor From, Irven and Maryama Polster, ... ... Wikipedia

Schema therapy psychotherapy developed by Dr. Jeffrey E. Young for the treatment of personality disorders. This therapy is designed to work with patients who are unable to ... ... Wikipedia

Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT); formerly rational therapy and rationally emotional (emotive) therapy) actively directive, educational, structured ... Wikipedia

foreign psychotherapeutic techniques - DEEP TECHNIQUES Active psychotherapy (Fromm Reichmann). Analysis of Being (Binswanger). Fate analysis (Szondi). Character analysis (W. Reich). Analysis of the Self (H. Kohut, E. Erickson). Analytical game therapy (M. Klein). Analytical Family Therapy (Richter). ... ... Great psychological encyclopedia

DASEINANATYSE - A German term meaning what is currently known as existential analysis or existential psychology. See Existentialism and Existential Therapy ... Explanatory Dictionary of Psychology

BEING-IN-THE-WORLD - This term is the generally accepted translation of the term Hai Deger Dasein. This clumsy dash line is used primarily within the framework of existentialism, where it represents the central idea of \u200b\u200bthis philosophy that the integrity of man ... ... Explanatory Dictionary of Psychology

Books

Existential psychotherapy, Yalom Irwin D. This book is one of the most fundamental and comprehensive works of the famous American psychotherapist, one of the most prominent representatives of the existential-humanistic direction. ...
In Search of the Present: Existential Therapy and Existential Analysis, Vyacheslav Vladimirovich Letunovsky. What is Existential Therapy? What are her methods? How does it differ from other areas of psychotherapy? How does existential analysis differ from psychoanalysis? And why popularity ...

It is not easy to determine unequivocally the place of EGP in the psychological world - its interconnections with most other concepts are too complex and often unclear. And yet, in the most general form, we can say that the existential-humanistic approach of James

The budgetary is part of the "existential wing" of the humanist movement in modern psychology. Therefore, it would be logical to start with defining the position of humanistic psychology as a whole, then - the specifics of the existential direction, and then, within this position, find the place of EGP. At the same time, one should not forget the great degree of conventionality in the differentiation and opposition of different schools in psychology - as Budgethal likes to repeat, constellations do not exist in the sky, but in the head of the observer... However, one should not ignore their fundamental differences - after all, each star occupies its own definite place in the sky.

Humanistic psychology appeared as a result of the "third revolution" in psychology (in which existentialism played an important role) in the late 50s - early 60s of the XX century. And at first, its main pathos consisted in a protest against the then dominant psychological concepts of behaviorism and psychoanalysis.

Behaviorism he was mercilessly criticized primarily for a simplified, mechanistic view of a person and the desire to "calculate" his behavior and control him; for a disdainful attitude to the inner life of a person and her own potential. Bugental believes that the obsession with behavior is a consequence of "tunnel vision", and behaviorism itself received the status of "psychology" clearly by accident (see. de Carvalho, 1996, p. 46). Moreover, according to Budgethal, the objectivity and scientism of behavioral ("objective", scientific) psychology is a consequence of the work of the defense mechanisms of its creators themselves: being unable to fully interact with their own inner subjective world, behaviorists try to stay within the framework of "objective" criteria and measurements ( Bugental, 1976).

But something else is more important - behavioral ideas, embodied in practice, are not at all harmless. The budgetary claims that if a person is taught that he is an animal, and the concepts of "freedom and dignity" are just illusions, then there is a chance that a person can take such an image and try to conform to it. And therefore, the main danger is not that B. Skinner (the leader of American behavioral psychologists and one of the most ardent critics of humanistic values) and his colleagues are mistaken, but in the fact that they rightbut their rightness is one-sided and destructive. "A man can be reduced to the level of a white rat or a dove. A man can be turned into a machine. Reduced concepts of human nature can be used to control people, which Skinner seeks. But will a man remain human if he is turned into a dove hitting a ball?" ( Bugental, 1976, p. 293-294).

Interestingly, B. Skinner, for his part, attempted a "scientific-behavioral" analysis and "debunking" of the most important ideas for existentialism, and in the first place - freedom (Skinner, 1971). However, he considered freedom not as value or attribute proper human way of being and fundamental life problem, but as a "concept", as an object of "experimental research". And, of course, he "discovered" that there is no freedom, just as there is, in fact, no man himself, but there is only an animal-like organism, the entire "psychology" of which can be exhaustively described by the "stimulus-response" law. Budzhenthal believes that such "denials" are more "like shooting from a toy pistol at the drawing of a lion, followed by the proclamation of the murder of the king of beasts" ( Bugental, 1976, p. 321).

FROM psychoanalysis the relationship of humanistic psychology is more complex. On the one hand, many humanists (especially existentialists) borrowed a lot from Sigmund Freud and his supporters (and most existential psychologists generally started out as psychoanalysts). On the other hand, it was their disillusionment with the postulates of Freudianism that led them to fundamentally different views.

Humanistic psychology sharply opposed primarily determinism Freudian doctrine and his dogmatism, against the statement fatal predestination adult life of a person by the characteristics of his childhood. Although it was the existential wing of humanistic psychology that was closest to psychoanalysis, and the existentialists had many claims to Freud. In particular, serious doubts arose about the cornerstone of psychoanalysis - concept of the unconscious as a universal explanatory principle. Were also reimagined goals therapy, principles relationship with the client, and most importantly - the idea of human nature (see more on this later).

This is not a complete list of the main "hot spots" of theoretical discussions of humanists with representatives of other approaches. However, the most valuable in humanistic psychology is not theory. The most important feature and unconditional merit of humanistic psychology is its pronounced practical focus... Moreover, the main ideas of this direction are not only implemented in practice, but grew out of it in the literal sense.

The path of creating leading humanistically oriented concepts is not from theoretical abstractions to "implementation" into life, but, on the contrary, from real practical experience to theoretical generalizations. And the most important thing is that it is this practical experience that humanist psychologists consider as a priority value, the main reference point and much more authority than any theoretical construct.

In addition, humanist psychologists in their speeches and publications strive to address not only and not so much the intellect of the interlocutor, but rather his own "experience of experiences", the realities of his life, and to clarify their ideas, as a rule, prefer to give the floor to "reality" itself , saturating their books with a large number of texts of specific conversations with specific people, descriptions of real life situations, problems and their solutions (these are the majority of works K. Rogers, J. Budgethal, Snyderov).

In this regard, one more “paradox” (rather apparent) should be mentioned. Practice is indeed the backbone of a humanistic approach; however, the practice itself is understood here in a special way. This is the practice of real experience of experiencing and solving real life problems, and not "application" and "implementation" of any given methods and techniques.

Therefore, talking about the practice of the humanistic approach is not a simple description of technologies, prescriptions, etc., but either an analysis of specific real situations (psychological, pedagogical, consulting, etc.), or the presentation of goals, values \u200b\u200band principles of the practical implementation of a humanistic position ... This guide will give priority to the latter option.

So exactly concept of the essence of human nature contains those fundamental provisions that most clearly distinguish humanistic psychology from other directions and serve as the unifying principle of all the diverse currents within it.

Briefly and clearly, the essence of this concept was expressed by the famous researcher of the history and theory of humanistic psychology Roy de Carvalho, 1996, p. 51): the essence of human nature - be in progress... This process of becoming makes a person more and more active, autonomous, focused on personal choice, capable of creative adaptation and self-change. Refusal from the "process of becoming" is, in fact, a refusal (usually forced or not fully conscious) to live truly human life.

It is this deep personal contradiction - between the initial internal tendency of becoming "human in man" and the difficulties of following it - that should be the focus of the facilitator's work. While agreeing on this starting point, representatives of different branches of the humanistic direction, nevertheless, disagree on other, including very fundamental issues. These differences are often not quite clearly understood, so we will dwell on them in more detail.

Existential approach differs from personality-centered approach (LCP) - another major trend of humanistic psychology - primarily a qualitative assessment of the essence of man and the interpretation of the sources of the process of becoming.

The existential position is that the essence of a person is not set initially (as follows from the concepts of A. Maslow, K. Rogers and other representatives of LCP), but is acquired human in process individual search own unique identity. At the same time, from an existential point of view, human nature has not only positive potential (as advocates of LCP insist on), but also negative, even destructive possibilities - and therefore everything depends on personal choices the person himself, for which he bears personal a responsibility... It is very difficult for many people to make such choices and take responsibility for their lives, and therefore, in a situation of individual counseling, special efforts and much more activity are required from the facilitator than is suggested in the LCP. This is how J. Budgethal writes about his movement from a personality-centered position to an existential one.

“Although I have maintained (and continue to this day) a commitment to the Rogerian respect for human dignity and autonomy, my clinical practice has taught me that some patients require different therapies. As my patient base has expanded (especially since entered by people without college degrees), I found that the Rogerian position, while inherently reflective, did not have a significant impact on some people. I also noticed that even the most dedicated client-centered therapists used other dimensions in their work. (.. To Rogers' credit, he himself constantly developed his previous constructions.) Based on this experience, I became convinced that I can help some people go deeper into their subjectivity if I am more active in our conversations. " ( Bugental, 1987, p. 90).

The recognition of the possibility - and often the need - of a substantially more firm and proactive position of the consultant is an important distinguishing feature of EGP.

However, the relationship between the two main approaches in humanistic psychology (EGP and LCP) is not so simple and it is worth considering in a broader context - in the space of all the main approaches in modern psychology.

In my time Max Otto stated: "The deepest source of human philosophy, the source that nourishes and forms it, is vera or lack of faith in humanity (highlighted by me - S. B.). If a person has confidence in people and believes that with their help he is able to achieve something meaningful, then he will acquire such views on life and on the world that will be in harmony with his trust. Lack of trust will generate appropriate perceptions "(quoted in: Horney, 1993, p. 235).

From this, in particular, it follows that in any concept, in addition to the usual theoretical and practical components, there is always (but not always realized and declared) one more - value component, a kind basic setting... It is this axiomatic credo and serves as a real foundation for conceptual constructions.

If we apply this criterion of belief / disbelief in a person to the main psychological theories, then they are quite clearly divided into two groups (alas, unequal): trusting human nature (that is, humanistically oriented) and distrustful... However, within each group, in turn, one can find very significant differences, so it makes sense to introduce the following subdivision:

a. in the group of "distrustful" (pessimists) there is a tougher position, asserting that human nature negative - asocial and destructive - and that the person himself cannot cope with it; but there is a softer one, in accordance with which a person does not have a natural essence, and initially he is neutral an object of forming external influences, on which the "essence" acquired by a person depends;

b. in the group of "trusting" (optimists) there is also a more radical point of view that asserts unconditionally positive, the kind and constructive essence of a person, embodied in the form of potential, which is revealed under appropriate conditions; and there is a more cautious view of a person, which proceeds from the fact that initially a person does not have an essence, but acquires it as a result of self-creation, and positive actualization is not guaranteed, but is the result of a person's own free and responsible choice - this position can be called conditionally positive.

In accordance with the listed basic attitudes and approaches to the problem of the essence of a person, the question of "what to do" with this essence, so that a person becomes "better", "how to properly" develop, educate, how to provide psychological assistance, etc. ... Naturally, all psychologists are concerned with these questions, but this is itself "correct" and "better" understood very differently. Question about sense of influence fundamentally solved as follows:

If the essence of a person is negative, then it is necessary fix;

If it is not there - it should be shape and adjust;

If she is positive, she should not be harmed and help to open up, contribute to its actualization;

If the essence is acquired through free choices, then one should help a person learn to make these choices.

Moreover, if in the first two cases the main reference point is the so-called "interests of society", the requirements of "social order", etc. - external goals and criteria, then in the last two cases, interests of the person himself.

Thus, a more detailed typology basic implicit attitudes in the world of psychological concepts can be represented as follows:

Although this scheme (like any attempt at classification in psychology) undoubtedly simplifies the real diversity of approaches, but, in my opinion, it captures very fundamental differences and quite clearly outlines the space of professional self-determination of a psychologist (and any person who takes the courage and responsibility influence other people), the main options for possible choices and their deep reasons.

And most importantly: it becomes obvious that in psychology and psychotherapy professional self-determination is determined by fundamental attitudes, that is, it follows personal self-determination and in accordance with it. Dispute between concepts arising from different basic settings, as a rule, ends in vain because axiomatic propositions collide and inevitably (although not always obvious) collide, in fact, - different faiths... And faith, as you know, is not very sensitive to arguments in discussion and treats facts like a magnet with objects, attracting only "its own" ...

But this problem has another side - exactly the opposite. I mean the increased in recent years tendency to unite different psychological approaches. In itself, this tendency is one of the most important promising lines of development of psychology. However, such unification is a complex, non-mechanical process, which today, in my opinion, is more desirable than valid. And above all because they were not found common grounds, fully integrating all the diversity of the world of psychological views.

The fact that someone (for example, such "engineers from psychology" as the creators of NLP and their fans) does not see fundamental differences psychological concepts - differences in basic attitudes, in methodological foundations, in values \u200b\u200band meanings, but "reveals" certain similarities and analogies in words and procedures - this is still insufficient reason to lump everything together, calling it "synthesis", "integration" , "metaskills", etc. (or, more often, without naming, but simply ignoring conceptual differences and demonstrating striking omnivorousness).

Today, the real way to avoid Scylla of dogmatism and Charybdis of senseless eclecticism is, in my opinion, in the recognition of pluralism and constructive "alternativeism" and the possibility of a full-fledged synthesis, first of all within one basic setting... The strength of modern psychology is not in monolithic (monological!) Unity, but on the contrary - in diversity (dialogical!) world of different psychology and the possibility of a conscious self-determination in him. In my opinion, the existential-humanistic approach is just an example adequate synthesis based on clearly understood values and methodological installations - and this is the source of his vitality, strength and heuristicness.

Let us return, however, to the above-mentioned most important existential problem individual life choices... These elections are primarily related to the solution of fundamental issues of human life - existential problems, which are the "conditions of existence" of a person as a person.

Different authors formulate these problems in different ways, but aside from the details, they can be reduced to four main "nodes" (each of them contains antinomies-polarities - in the space of which, in fact, a person should make existential choices):

• problems of life and death;

· Problems of determinism, freedom and responsibility;

• problems of meaning and its loss;

· Problems of communication and loneliness.

The need to solve these acute problems and the inability to do this unequivocally and finally is one of the most important reasons that give rise to deep human anxiety - existential anxiety... Unlike classical psychoanalysis, where any anxiety is viewed as a negative phenomenon that requires relief, existentialists consider this "basic anxiety" an integral attribute of a full-fledged human being.

Another significant difference between the existential approach and LCP is the emphasis not so much on the individual as such, but on human relationship with the World... According to Victor Frankl, "if a person wants to come to himself, his path lies through the world" ( Frankl, 1990, p. 120). This explains the keen interest in the features of the "I-and-World" system of the client, the desire to understand each - even, at first glance, purely individual - problem in the context of his relationship with other people, with the World.

From all the listed features of the existential concept of personality, another fundamental position follows - indeterminism... As rightly emphasized Ludwig Binswanger, "the fact that our life is determined by the forces of nature is only part of the truth; the other part is that we ourselves determine these forces, as well as our own destiny" ( Binswanger, 1956).

The principle of indeterminism means that human life cannot be fully explained by any objective "laws", external causes, extra-personal "factors". It is in the most important thing - at the level of existential problems of realizing one's own life - that a person cannot be "calculated", predicted and controlled.

And this, in turn, has fundamentally important methodological and methodological consequences, which also sharply distinguish the existential approach from most other psychological concepts. The most important "feature of the existential paradigm in psychology is that it, in fact, refused experimental research as immoral... Equality of the positions of the psychologist and the client, mutual risk and responsibility when giving the other the right of free choice - this, of course, clearly manifests a new level of attitude towards a person, and towards the world as a whole "( Bondarenko, 1992, p. 59).

Having abandoned experiments, existentialists choose as their methodological basis phenomenology... This means, first of all, the rejection of an objective analysis of isolated psychological characteristics and the consideration of any "phenomenon as an expression or manifestation of this or that personality" ( Binswanger, 1992, p. 128). In addition, phenomenological methodology chooses "human experience" and uses research methods that allow you to see and understand this experience as fully, accurately and "humanly" as possible - conversation, observation, self-observation and others quality methods.

This is a brief description of the existential paradigm in psychology. And although this direction raises certain objections and resistance (for more details about the essence and reasons for resistance to existentialism, see, for example, Schneider, May, 1995, p. 86-88), it is one of the most promising and authoritative approaches in modern psychology and psychotherapy. This is confirmed, in particular, breadth and variety of spheres, where the existential concept turns out to be very effective: problems of depression and loss of meaning in life, alcoholism and drug addiction, family conflicts and sexual disorders, aggression and loneliness and many, many others - see the description of the essence and specific examples of an existential approach to solving a variety of problems in already the books mentioned J. Budgetal, J. Korea, K. Schneider and R. May, W. Frankla... Of particular interest is the very successful experience of applying existential principles in raising children ( Snyder..., 1995, etc.).

Another sign of the strength and heuristic nature of the existential approach can be variety and richness of points of view within this direction (while maintaining the paradigmatic community). More A. Maslow (after K. Wilson) talked about the existence "yes-speaking" and "no-speakers" existentialists ( Maslow, 1968). K. Schneider and R. May distinguish the "traditional existential point of view" and two "existential-oriented psychologies" - existential-analytical and existential-humanistic, to which they also add their own approach, "existential-integrative" (Schneider, May, 1995, p. 7-8). In addition, a special place is occupied by logotherapy by Viktor Frankl (Frankl, 1990), dialogic (Buber) therapy by Maurice Friedman, 1995).

Thus, having considered the main ideas of the existential approach in the context of the leading directions of modern psychology, we can conclude that it occupies in the psychological world a definite, clear position, offers its own specific answers to the most important, key questions. These answers are principled alternative leading psychological paradigms - and, accordingly, expand the space choice for psychologists themselvesby contributing to the growth of their own freedom and enhancing the possibilities of their professional and personal self-determination.

The most important advantage of the existential direction is the desire not only not get away from the most important questions about a person, regardless of their complexity, but it is precisely these essential questions to place in the spotlight. It is the existentialists who build "psychology about the main thing" and to the greatest extent overcome "sin of simplification", inherent in modern psychology, which so persistently tries to look not where it lost, but where it is brighter.

The implementation of the existential approach in psychology (theoretical, and to an even greater extent - practical) allows you to get fundamentally new, deeper and more essential, more "human" look per person and the conditions of his formation. This view is closest to person-centered approach... They are united commitment to humanistic values, and it is the agreement in trust in a person allows these two separate concepts to unite on many important issues. The result of these integration trends was, in particular, the emergence of a whole "family" of existential-oriented approaches, including - existential-humanistic.

In this family James Budgethal takes the place of one of the patriarchs, wise and authoritative. We turn to the description of its concept.